Wolfram Alpha's API sees big pickup, may just change how we look at a search engine

We've been following Wolfram Alpha for
since
its introduction as this search engine promises to open search to
dramatically new realms, such as math
and the sciences. Located in Champaign, Illinois, Wolfram
Research produces Wolfram Alpha. Founded by Stephen Wolfram,
Ph.D, the company's past works have included Mathematica and
Wolfram Workbench, utilities commonly employed by college
students and researchers.

Wolfram Alpha returns answers to
complex questions like plots of mathematical functions, geometric
shapes, nutritional information, and more. Previously, these
results had been offered solely through Wolfram's search engine
site. There had been some recent chatter that Wolfram was
working on APIs for other search engine firms to use, but the results
remained unrevealed -- until now.

Microsoft and Wolfram
Research just announced that Microsoft's Bing search engine will
bring the Wolfram API onboard to provide richer search results.
Wolfram's blog describes,
"Wolfram|Alpha provides immediate, unbiased, and individualized
information, making it distinctly different from what has
traditionally been found through web search. By using Wolfram|Alpha,
Bing recognizes the complementary benefits of bringing computational
knowledge to the forefront of the search experience... By using our
API, Bing will be able to seamlessly access the tens of thousands of
algorithms and trillions of pieces of data from Wolfram|Alpha, and
directly incorporate the computations in its search results."

The
Wolfram team relates a humorous story of Stephen Wolfram presenting
the engine to Microsoft's senior executives. Stephen Wolfram
typed in the query "2^2^2^2^2" and a number popped up.
Semi-retired founder and former CEO Bill Gates inquired, "What,
is that right?"

Mr. Wolfram replied, "We do
mathematics!

And that they did, finding that the result is
indeed correct. The Wolfram team writes, "Microsoft continues to
pepper us with questions to this day, reflecting its continued
enthusiasm in Wolfram|Alpha."

The deal is not an
exclusive one, however, so those hoping to see Google+Wolfram aren't
out of luck just yet. We caught up with Wolfram's publicist,
John Ekizian. While he told us he couldn't discuss financial
details of the deal with Microsoft, he was more than happy to clarify
the question of exclusivity. He states, " We have talked
to everybody in the business about using our API, and then we'll have
more announcements about whose using. But no, there's no exclusivity
with Microsoft."

He says Microsoft was the first to jump
on the deal, though. Asking him about the direction he sees the
company's search endeavors going in, he plugged both the API (and
partners), Wolfram's own site, and the company's iPhone app, stating,
"I think its a little bit of everything. Its a great complement
to search. Therefore its the perfect API. But also, we've had a lot
of traction on the actual website and our iPhone app has been doing
incredibly well. We've been on the top grossing apps and on the hot
apps and we've only been out about three or four weeks with the
iPhone app."

For now, you can go
to Bing and test out the feature for yourself. Microsoft
suggests using it to search for health information, such as body-mass
index (BMI), nutrition information, to plot math equations, or to
look up geometric information like "pyramid".

Update: Thur., November 12, 2009, 2:10 p.m.:

We spoke early this afternoon with Wolfram's Schoeller Porter who leads Wolfram's developer relations program and works more closely with the technical aspects of the API.

We began by asking some questions about how Wolfram collects all of its data. Mr. Porter explained that some data is internal, other from reputable sources (government data, etc.). However, with all information, before it can be entered into the search engine it must undergo "curation" -- named after museum preservation. Describes Mr. Porter, "It's a process to help ensure that we're providing quality data to our customers."

Next we inquired about whether Wolfram had plans for a Android OS (Google) or Blackberry (RIM) version of its popular iPhone app. Mr. Porter said that the various platforms are indeed being looked at and that the main limitation was screen size. The iPhone app sends queries to the API, which Mr. Porter describes as a "restful API" and gets information back to display. Mr. Porter said that the iPhone was first targeted due to its "large and vibrant market."

One interesting thing Mr. Porter mentioned was that Microsoft was Wolfram's customer (and not the other way around). This may cast a bit of light on the business arrangement between the pair, which is being kept closely guarded.

We closed with discussing the future of Wolfram Alpha, which seems bright. Mr Porter states, "Wolfram Alpha will continue to grow in scope of information and depth."

"Spreading the rumors, it's very easy because the people who write about Apple want that story, and you can claim its credible because you spoke to someone at Apple." -- Investment guru Jim Cramer